TFM  Alternate Ending: Mewtwo's Penance
by BenRG
Summary: I've just seen TFM! Sappy ending wasn't it? This is my own attempt.  R&R please : [Revised Version!]


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Pokémon

Mewtwo Strikes Back

Legal Disclaimer

Pokémon is the legal property of Nintendo Inc. All the Pokémon and their human friends and enemies are copyright Nintendo and 4 Kids Productions. This is a non-profit work written solely for the author's (and the readers') enjoyment. No infringement of any legal trademark, copyright or property intended.

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Author's Notes

Hey, I've just see 'Pokémon – The First Movie' on video. Isn't the ending sappy with Ash being brought to life by the Pokémons' tears? Still it is a good idea, but I want an ending more in tune with the nature of the story and less, well 'Disneyfied.' Try this for size:

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The Sacrifice

Brock and Misty hauled a semi-conscious Ash to his feet as the natural and cloned Pokémon clashed all around them. Powers that human trainers could only barely hold in check were now unleashed without any restraint.

"This is terrible," Joy cried out.

"I've never seen Pokémon fight this way," Brock shouted into the wind. "They are so… furious. This is no battle, it is a war: a fight to the death."

As the appalled trainers looked on, the two Gyrados physically slammed each other into the perimeter of the arena, demolishing a section of wall. Despite the pain they must be feeling, the two giant water Pokémon continued to fight, if only weakly.

Misty was crying. "It is all Mewtwo's fault," she wept. "Can't he see what he is doing is wrong? Pokémon shouldn't be forced to fight this way!"

"I don't think he cares," Brock said bitterly. He pointed up. High above, the blue energy of Mewtwo continued to war with Mew's rosy pink energy. As the horrified trainers watched the two energy spheres containing the powerful psi Pokémon became tangled and dived for the centre of the arena. The spheres impacted. Although the kinetic force fields protected Mew and Mewtwo from harm, the transmitted force blew every person and Pokémon within half a mile off of their feet.

The smoke and spray of rubble cleared and Mew and Mewtwo stood (or floated, in Mew's case) utterly unharmed. "_So_," Mewtwo hissed angrily. "_I have underestimated you, 'Mother.' This battle ends now. I will have your hide adorn the entrance to my chambers_."

"Mew," was Mew's only reply.

Simultaneously, both psi Pokémon unleashed a psychic storm attack. The two opposing psychic blasts met at the very centre of the arena and mutually annihilated, generating a huge fireball. Once again, the fighting Pokémon were blown off of their feet.

Ash looked on hopelessly as Pikachu continued to refuse to strike his clone. The false Pikachu struck and struck with his paws, finally knocking his opponent to the arena floor. Pikachu rose unsteadily to his feet and returned to his place, standing, staring at his evil mirror image.

"Pika-pika-pi-chu," [I will not fight you, my son,] Pikachu said weakly.

The false Pikachu gathered himself for another series of attacks, but he was clearly exhausted too. He managed only a few half-hearted slaps before collapsing into his progenitor's arms.

At that moment the shock wave from another interacting psi attack swept both off of their feet. Pikachu barely prevented his clone from being slammed hard into a wall. The clone looked at him in amazement; unable to understand why his enemy would act to save him. The two electric mice looked at each other with a feeling of revelation, and then stepped away from each other.

The interacting psi waves spread out, creating a miniature electromagnetic pulse. The Stadium's lights and scoreboard flickered and died. Behind them the lights of Mewtwo's palace flashed out and there was a buzz as Ash's Pokédex burnt out.

As Team Rocket watched, Meowth's clone rushed up. "This isn't the trouble I wanted," James said in a tight tone.

"Make that double for me!" Jessie agreed.

"Get back," Meowth hissed. He jumped forward and squared off against his clone, claws extended. But he could not strike, just as Pikachu could not strike. "Its' no good," he admitted. "I can't fight you."

"Meowth," the clone agreed. "Meow-ow-ow-me."

"Yeah," Meowth said. With a sigh he sat, looking at the carnage that was taking place around the stadium. "You know, kid. I think I almost made a terrible Meow-mistake." Meowth looked at his clone, who was looking up at the sky.

Meowth looked up and saw, just beyond the edge of the storm clouds, a star, a very special star. "Meow-owth," the clone commented.

"Yeah," Meowth agreed. "We shouldn't fight, but think about all the thing we have in common."

"Meowth?"

"Yeah, we've got the same hair, the same claws, the same charm. We were even born under the same star." The two Meowths hugged each other, feeling the revelation.

Ash felt a moment of hope. He, too, felt the revelation. And he knew what he had to do. "Someone has to stop them," Misty said in desperation.

"Not stop _them_," Ash said. "Everything comes down to Mew and Mewtwo. They are the ones that have to be stopped. They have to see sense." Ash's tone of voice became firmer as he felt the _rightness_ of what he was saying. "Someone has to show them. We have to stop the fight, not by beating them, but refusing to harm another, like Pikachu and Meowth."

Ash suddenly slipped from Misty and Brock's arms and charged towards the centre of the arena as Mew and Mewtwo were, once again, surrounded by psychic fire as they gathered their incomprehensible powers for another reality-ripping attack. "NO!" Ash yelled. "What you are doing is _wrong_! Stop it now, before someone is _killed_."

Ash did not know exactly what he was going to do, but when the two psychic attacks flashed towards each other, he knew that he could not allow either Pokémon to be permanently injured. Not even Mewtwo. He ran in between the two psychic blasts and took them.

"AAAAASSSSSSSSHHHHH!" Misty screamed as her friend was consumed in a massive psychic explosion.

"_YOU FOOL!_" Mewtwo roared.

There was a long silence. The smoke cleared to reveal Ash, still standing in the very centre of the field. His body was glowing a deep violet shade from the psychic fall out. In the utter silence, he tumbled onto the ground, unmoving.

"Pika-pi-pi!" Pikachu cried. The small electric Pokémon ran from the sidelines to his friend's side. Ash was quiet and still. As an appalled Pikachu watched, as his friend lay, unmoving, his eyes sightless and his heart still.

"Pika-pi?" Pikachu asked quietly. He nudged Ash's still form. Nothing. "Pika-CHU!" A massive thundershock illuminated Ash. The body jerked but, apart from that, remained still.

Again and again, Pikachu launched massive electric shocks into his friend's form in a hopeless attempt to revive him. Finally, he had no more to give and collapsed against his friend's face, crying.

"Ash, oh God, NO!" Misty was at her friend's side, tears pouring down her cheeks. She lifted his body and began to shake it desperately. "Wake up, Ash," she implored. "Don't do this to me. DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!" There was no reply. "Please, Ash, no," Misty wept helplessly. There was no sign of life. Misty finally lowered her friend to the ground and reverently closed his eyes. She collapsed to the arena floor next to him, wanting nothing more than for the oblivion of death to take her pain away. Pikachu nudged her and she hugged the electric Pokémon gently.

Misty looked up as a massive form cast a shadow across her. Mewtwo stood alone, looking down at her and her dead friend. "Get away from us!" she screamed hysterically. "He's dead because of you and your lust for power! Don't you think you've done enough damage for one day?"

"_They think so_," Mewtwo said. The big psi Pokémon gestured around him. The other Pokémon were all crying. _Crying_. A Trainer died thus only very rarely and the shock of this death was felt worldwide. On distant continents, Growlithes howled and Tauros bellowed. Magicarp and Goldeens thrashed in their tanks, making their owners fear that they were trying to throw themselves to their deaths.

In a dark corner, Jessie and James hugged each other. Jessie was crying and James showed a hint of tears. Ash might be an enemy, but in this life, he was also the closest thing they were ever likely to have to a friend. Now he was gone.

"_He…_" Mewtwo shook his head as if he were trying to clear it. "_He took a blast meant for me. He died in an attempt to stop my Mother and I from injuring each other_." Mewtwo rose to his massive full height and rose from the ground, his psychic voice growing louder and louder. "_I sought to end the slavery of Pokémon to human. I sought to rebuild the world in a better form! Yet, this boy, this child, was the one who sacrificed himself in trying to end a destructive wicked war that I, in my arrogance and my _hate_, I started!_" Mewtwo slowly dropped to the ground and reached out gently to brush Ash's hair with his clumsy fingers. "_What have I done?_" Mewtwo asked himself. He began to shudder as he continued to talk, almost to himself. "_You, who I called the oppressor, treat your Pokémon as equals and die for them, while I, who would be a liberator, enslave them and drive them to murderous conflict. You are the true saviour, the true Master, Ash Ketchum. What I am is… is… a… a _murderer."

Mew floated over. "Mew-ew-ew-mew," [You begin to learn, my son,] she said quietly.

Mewtwo rose again to his full height. He began to shimmer with power. "_No_," he growled. "_No! **NO!**_"

He rose above the ground. Misty and Pikachu were thrown back as a glassy blue psychic blast struck Ash's body. "_Ash Ketchum!_" Mewtwo roared. "_I command you to rise. Rise! RISE!_" The energy flared around Ash's corpse. "_It is not your place or time, son of Delilah Ketchum and Joseph Oak. It is not your destiny! You will not fall thus! I will not permit it! RISE!_"

Mew tried to approach her cloned child, but was thrown aside by the enormous psychic storm he was generating. "Mew-ew!" she cried out "Mew-me-ew-mew! Mew-ew-me!" [Mewtwo! He is dead; you cannot turn back time! You cannot change what has already happened!]

"_I AM MEWTWO!_" Mewtwo screamed in reply. "_I am the most powerful Pokémon in creation. I am the supreme power in this world and the sole arbiter of what is and is not possible!_" As Misty looked on in horror, Ash's body rose off of the ground, surrounded by blue psychic flame. "_I AM MEWTWO! I AM MASTER AND SHAPER! **TIME AND REALITY ARE CLAY TO BE MOULDED AS **_I_ SEE FIT!_"

Beyond the screaming Mewtwo the sky began to twist into an incredible vortex as the Pokémon's rage and grief tore at the fabric of reality. It was all the humans and other Pokémon could do to hang on as time and space began to unravel under the immense attack. The vortex began to tear Mewtwo's palace apart. Rubble and scrap metal were torn apart and flung into the swirling vortex. From deep inside, a golden glow began to shine. Golden lightning flashed past Mewtwo and began to strike Ash's floating corpse.

"**_I AM MEWTWO!_" **he howled to the heavens. He was far beyond reason now; his fury at his own failures had driven him mad."**_TIME AND EVEN DEATH WILL BOW BEFORE ME! I WILL NOT SUBMIT! I WILL _NOT_ BE DENIED! ASH KETCHUM, I COMMAND YOU TO RISE! _RISE!**"

Misty felt herself lifted like a leaf and blown back across the stadium as the vortex vomited a golden stream of power onto her friend. A thunderclap deafened everyone. A thunderclap made of one despairing psychic scream:

"**_RISE!!!_**"

When Misty's senses were assured again, she ran to Ash's side. The form of her friend lay where she left it. Still lifeless. She fell to her knees and wept. A moment later, a crying Pikachu joined her. The little electric mouse climbed onto his friend's chest and cried out loud. Mewtwo rested on his knees, staring at the ground. Finally, he was defeated. No amount of raw power could bring back soul that had fled of its own accord.

Mewtwo staggered to his feet to join the mourning human girl. He leant over Ash's still form. Misty looked up as a single tear fell from Mewtwo's expressive violet eyes and fell to Ash's cheek. Misty looked up and, perhaps in that moment, something beyond words were communicated between human and Pokémon. "Mewtwo," Mewtwo said out loud.

Who knows what was said between those two broken hearts? Perhaps where a girl's grief or a mighty psychic's command failed, somewhere between the answer lay. Perhaps, somehow, Mewtwo opened himself to Misty and allowed her to call to Ash more loudly than she could with her voice. In the end, the result was the same. Another tear fell and mingled with the oceans shed by Misty and Pikachu. As it ran down Ash's cooling cheeks, the boy shuddered. Then he gasped and opened his eyes. Human and Pokémon were frozen as Ash's eyes cleared. He looked up at Mewtwo and Misty. "What…" he said in a hoarse voice. "What… happened?"

Misty could not hold herself or restrain herself. She flung herself forward and hugged Ash, weeping in joy now, not grief. He held patted her on the back, confused but relieved. "I'm okay, Misty," he said quietly. "I'm okay."

Mewtwo staggered back from the miracle, unwilling to trust his levitation powers at this time. Mew floated over to him. "Mew-ew-me-me-ew-mew," [The true power comes not from brute force,] she explained to her son. "Mew-mew-ew-mew. Mew-ew-me-me-mew-mew-me." [It comes from the heart and soul. Faced with love and friendship, what power does even death hold?]

"_I… understand,_" Mewtwo said quietly.

The rest of the humans and their Pokémon friends gathered around Ash. Even Team Rocket joined the celebrations as they hauled a surprised and disoriented Ash to his feet.

"_LISTEN!_" Mewtwo suddenly roared. Everyone turned to see him and Mew floating at the head of the stadium. "_Ash Ketchum lives, not because of my word, but because of the love of his friends and one who shares his soul." _Misty shivered the significant look that the psychic Pokémon shot her way._ "This does not justify my crimes or excuse them. As the only one of my kind, I hereby impose my own sentence: Exile. To a far-far away place, far from the sight of men._"

As the open-mouthed observers looked on, the cloned mutant Pokémon began to lift off of the field and into the skies above Mew Island. Finally, held in their creator's psychic grip, they floated off. Ash may have imagined it, but the cloned Pikachu seemed to shoot him a mischievous wink as he flew past.

"_This day we have been privileged to witness a miracle_," Mewtwo announced, his body beginning to glow. "_And I have learnt that the ends _never_ justify the means. May all learn from this: that war is never desirable, and that the _true_ evil is not in owning or fighting, it is to believe others are only a tool for your own goals. I will now cleanse this day's evils and grief. Not just from your minds but from the very annals of history itself. This day with its pain and horror never occurred. You will return to your places and forget, and I? I shall attempt to find absolution for my crimes_."

"Mewtwo!" Ash called. Mewtwo paused and looked at the young human. "Where will you go?"

Mewtwo laughed. "_Somewhere far away, Ash. Somewhere I have never known. A place called… home_." As the flying band of super-Pokémon rose away, the storm clouds of Mewtwo's super-storm faded and disappeared. "_Maybe we will meet again, Ash_," Mewtwo added jovially_. _"_Somewhere on the road to destiny_."

Then the stadium wasn't there. Nor the island itself. There was only a flaring blue-white psychic storm, into which heroes and bystanders alike sank into without a trace…

DISCONTINUITY 

"Your attention please," Officer Jenny announced. "I am afraid that, due to weather conditions, we have cancelled all ferry sailings."

There was a massed groan of disbelief. "Aw come on!" Craig complained. "We have to get to Mew Island!"

"I'm sorry," the young policewoman replied. "The storm is just too intense."

"However," another voice announced. "The Pokémon Centre is open, and we will be glad to shelter everyone stranded by the storm." This satisfied the Trainers and civilians alike. "Come this way," Nurse Joy said in her usual calm tones. She walked to the entrance with a large number of people in tow.

Ash looked around him, totally disoriented. "Where… where are we?" he asked. His memories were confused and he couldn't understand how he, Misty and Brock came to be here. On the edge of his thoughts there was a memory of terror, anger, of a great war and of… well a lot of pain before it got very dark. As soon as the thoughts came, however, they were gone like an optical illusion, seen from the corner of the eye but never in the whole of your vision.

"Well, we're here now," Misty said in her pragmatic way. Ash put aside the phantom thoughts of defeat and death and smiled at his two friends.

"Yeah," Ash said. "I suppose we'll just have to chalk this one up to Brock's cooking." Both he and Misty looked at Brock and waited for a reply.

Brock was too busy watching the departing Nurse Joy. "Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny are great aren't they?" he asked in a far-away voice. "They get cuter every time I see them." Ash and Misty shot each other a glance that shared the same meaning: _Pathetic_.

Ash felt the warmth of friendship as the trio strode out of the terminal and it shielded him from the rain. As the three friends walked down the length of the quay, the storm began to fade as quickly as it arose. The sun shone through the thinning clouds. Ash basked in the warmth.

"The storm's letting up!" Jenny said, looking around her in relief.

"Yes," the ferry terminal manager said. "It is good to see that things are clearing up at last." Jenny shot the woman a confused look. There was more of a meaning to those words than she understood.

As Ash, Misty and Brock looked out to sea, a pink flash darted between the clouds. "_Mew_," Ash plainly heard.

"Hey, what was that?" he asked.

"What was what," Misty asked. She cocked her head at her friend. "I don't see anything, Ash."

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Good, Ash thought. _A vision, just for me_. "When I first started my voyage two years ago," he explained, "I saw a very rare unknown Pokémon. I think I just saw another one."

"Or maybe you are just hallucinating, Ash," Misty teased.

"Or maybe he isn't," Brock countered. "There is 'more to heaven and earth than is dreamt of in your philosophy,' Misty Waterflower."

Misty smiled and submitted to the implied rebuke. She huddled closer to Ash as the last breath of the storm blew hard around her. Ash, untypically for him, noted her discomfort. "Come on, guys," he said. "Let's hit the town. I'm hungry and there is a restaurant out there with our names on it."

Brock and Misty laughed their agreement. The three Trainers turned and walked away as Mew and Mewtwo watched from among the clouds. The two psychic Pokémon darted away, crossing a whole world in a second. They finally arrived at a rain forest with a tall mountain in the very centre. As Mewtwo flew forward, he felt peace for the first time in his short life. "_Home_," he realised.

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The End


End file.
